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Central Appalachians

Last updated: July 3rd, 2026

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Name	†	Color on Map	EPA Code‡
Forested Hills and Mountains	✓		69a
Uplands and Valleys of Mixed Land Use	✓		69b
Greenbrier Karst	✓		69c
Dissected Appalachian Plateau	✓		69d
Cumberland Mountain Thrust Block	✓		69e

† Status: ✓ = Complete ○ = Needs Image … = Incomplete ∅ = Stub Only

‡ This code refers to the US EPA's Level 4 ecoregion codes for the continental U.S., see here.

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↑About the Central Appalachians

The Central Appalachians are a region of the Appalachians extending roughly northeast-southwest, from central Pennsylvania barely into Tennessee. The region is largest in eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia. This region is higher-altitude and has steeper inclines than regions both to the northwest and southeast, and it features some of the highest elevations in the northern end of the Ozark, Oauchita-Appalachian Forests ecoregion, although farther south the Blue Ridge reaches much higher.

The climate is humid and continental, with severe winters and warm to sometimes hot summers. The frost-free period can be as short as 130 days and is usually at most 180 days. Precipitation varies considerably by altitude, from about 38-59 inches annually. The terrain is rugged, consisting of a dissected plateau with numerous long ridges running through it. The ridges are narrow and steep, and the rest of the region is covered by low mountains and high hills, with narrow, curvy valleys. A few isolated flatter valleys are found throughout, from limestone and one meteorite crater.

Originally this region was covered in the highly diverse mixed mesophytic forest, with American chestnut (Castanea dentata) as the most common tree, but numerous other species common. Now, dominant trees include chestnut oak (Quercus montana), red maple (Acer rubrum), white oak (Quercus alba), black oak (Quercus velutina), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), American basswood (Tilia americana), buckeye, and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). White ash (Fraxinus americana) was common until recently when the Emerald Ash Borer killed most mature trees. There is some eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), mostly on north-facing slopes, and Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana) in early-successional growth. The highest elevations have some coniferous forest, dominated by red spruce (Picea rubens) and smaller amounts of balsam fir (Abies balsamea).

This area is less developed than the surrounding, flatter, lower-elevation areas. Most of the area is still forested, with only small amounts of pasture and dairy farming. Coal mining is common. The population is sparse, but there are small cities and towns throughout, mostly located in valleys and local areas of flatter topography. The largest cities are Beckley, WV, Johnstown, PA, and Middlesboro, KY.

To the southeast, this region is bordered by the lower-elevation and more populous Ridge and Valley region where the substrates are organized linearly. To the northwest, it is bordered by the lower and slightly less rugged Western Allegheny Plateau. At its southwestern end, this region borders the Southwestern Appalachians, and at its northern end, the North Central Appalachians.

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↑References

1. Wiken, E., Griffith, G. "North American Terrestrial Ecoregions - Level III", Commission for Environmental Cooperation, (2011) Web.